


Age Is But A Number

by supercali



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Birthday, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, hospital talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-03-03
Packaged: 2018-09-28 03:22:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10068953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supercali/pseuds/supercali
Summary: What are Aaron and Robert like in thirty years time?





	

**Author's Note:**

> For Robron Week - Day 5
> 
> Inspired partly by Ryan's limping in the wedding eps and by my own knee operation at 22 and the dream of a happy future for Aaron and Robert.
> 
> I thought after tonight's episode some happiness was in order!

As Aaron turned back to the bed from the wardrobe he could feel Robert’s eyes on him. He put the clothes he was holding down on the chair and walked over to the bed.

“Good morning, sleepyhead.” He leant down to kiss his sleepy husband, before passing him his glasses. It was the same most mornings. Aaron still woke up early as he had most of his life, while Robert had settled into retired life a lot easier and enjoyed the extra sleep.

“You don't have to pass me my glasses every time. I am capable.”

“Yeah, sure. That's why you stumbled into the door frame the other day. It's been ten years and you still don't accept you're blind as a bat without them and keep refusing to wear them.”

“They make my face look funny.”

“They do not! Well no more than usual! Get off!” He laughed as Robert pulled him onto the bed.

“You take it back!” Robert’s fingers found that spot just under Aaron’s ribs, that spot that pulled a noise from him that always made Robert smile.

“You're a child, you know that? You're sixty three, you ever gonna grow up?”

“You're fifty seven, you ever gonna learn how to eat your cereal?”

Aaron didn't answer, they both knew that Robert had moaned so much that over the years he had given up some of his more annoying habits, just as Robert had, unless they wanted to annoy each other. Instead he reached into his bedside drawer and pulled out a wrapped parcel and a card.

“Happy birthday, old man.”

“Aw you remembered!” Robert quipped as he started unwrapping the parcel.

“That was one time you git, when I had to go to London to rescue Zoey when she broke up with whatshisface.” He said of Liv’s daughter. He'd spent two days sorting out somewhere for her to live, while comforting his niece and when he got home had completely forgotten he'd missed Robert's birthday

“Yeah and I still don't understand why her damn father couldn't do that.”

“Cos he's a good for nothing idiot which is precisely why Liv divorced him and moved back in upstairs. Are we doing this again?” He knew Robert was winding him up, he loved Liv and he loved her kids as much as Aaron did. He'd also hated her husband a fact he'd made clear to him more than once. It wasn't that which wound him up.

Somehow over the years Aaron had ended up as the head of the Dingle family. Neither of them could really fathom how it happened but slowly the family started turning to Aaron and sometimes even Robert for advice and help. Aaron knew Robert didn't mind, to a point, it was more that his family had no sense of boundaries and would happily burst into their home day and night. Aaron would never turn them away, Cain and Zak had never really turned their backs on him and he wouldn't do it to anyone else. So while he talked to whoever it was or went and got them out of their messes, Robert would silently fume on the sofa. Married to the Dingles or not, Robert liked his space, liked his time with his husband and resented it being taken away from him.

“So, you like your present?” Aaron said trying to get their day back on track. He wasn't in the mood for another rant about the family. It would just end with Aaron reminding him of all the times they had both got Victoria and Andy’s kids out of trouble and then Robert would sulk.

“Yeah, course I do.” He looked at the back of the two sci-fi novels in his hands. “I love these books.” They didn't bother with big presents any more, they had pretty much every thing they wanted so small gifts were what they did now.

“I got that from the shelves full of them downstairs. I thought you could do with them this week.”

“I don't need reminding that I'm falling apart on my birthday, thank you very much.”

“It's just a new knee. You're hardly ready for the knacker’s yard.”

“It's the start of a slippery slope, glasses, new knees.”

“I like to think of it of it more like a car, you need a new set of tyres you have some fitted, you don't drive around on bald tyres. You just need…”

“I swear to God if the next words out of your mouth have anything to do with ‘servicing’ it won't be the hospital I head for tomorrow, it'll be the divorce court. I'm not sure how I feel about being compared to a beat up old car.”

“You're not a beat up old car…more a…”

“Shut up, right now!”

Aaron laughed getting up from the bed, picking up the clothes he’d left on the chair and putting them into the small case he'd opened on the bed. If he left it to Robert they'd be running, or in Robert’s case, hobbling, round the next morning in a panic, because Robert was being surprisingly difficult about his need for a knee replacement. He'd put off seeing a doctor for so long he was in agony with it and Aaron had put his foot down and made the appointment himself.

“Which pyjama bottoms do you want?”

“The blue ones. I can do that you know.”

“You could, or you could shut up and let me do it. Now are you going to get up today? I'll even make you breakfast.” He zipped up the case and placed in the floor before heading round the bed to pass Robert the walking stick that he needed when first got up.

“You want to give me a hand in the shower?”

“I don't think so, mister. We have a busy day.”

“Never used to be this difficult to get you into a shower.” Robert grumbled as he got out of bed, grimacing at the stiffness in his knee. Aaron hovers just in case even though he knows Robert hates it.

“Yeah, yeah. When you can move about without that stick maybe I'll think about it. Now go on. Vic and Adam are coming for lunch don't forget.”

He watched as Robert slowly headed to the bathroom before he himself headed for the kitchen. He used his time cooking breakfast to think back over the past three decades. Watching their nephews and nieces grow up, saying goodbye to loved ones, sending Liv unexpectedly off to uni, seeing her get married, have children, they'd done it together. Not that it was all easy, it never would be with the two of them. Their fights were still epic and Liv often complained about hearing slammed doors from her flat upstairs. Despite that they were stronger than ever.

“Smells good.” Robert said, slipping his hands round Aaron's waist and kissing the side of his neck. “I'm sorry I'm being a grumpy git.”

“I should think so! That's my job, remember? I know you're scared Robert, I'm not daft. But you’ll be fine. It's a new knee, not brain surgery. They do them every day.” He felt Robert sigh behind him. “I'll be there when you wake up, and when you're back on your feet, maybe you’ll finally take me to Barcelona.”

“Don't say that…every time we say we’re going to Barcelona, something happens!”

“Soft lad.” Aaron twists round to press a kiss on Robert’s cheek.

“Mmm. Love you.”

“Love you too. Go sit down, birthday boy.”

****************************

“Robert?” Aaron took his hand, leant over the bed. “You wanna wake up?”

“No.” Came the quiet mumble from under the oxygen mask.

“Just for a minute, then you can sleep all you like.” He smiled as sleepy eyes stared back at him. “Everything's fine, it all went well.”

”Aaron? You're here?”

“Where else would I be, idiot? You don't get rid of me that easy, old man.”

“Not old, part bionic now.”

“Yeah whatever.” Aaron leant down, pulled the oxygen mask away, and kissed Robert gently on the lips. “Get some rest, I'm not going anywhere.” He promised putting the mask back.

He sat down in the chair beside the bed, keeping hold of Robert's hand, while grabbing his phone from his pocket. He wasn't at all surprised to find dozens of texts asking after Robert from their family, so he passed his time replying to them while he waited for his husband to wake up again.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr  @nooneelsecomesclose17


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